cover image Before the Creeks Ran Red

Before the Creeks Ran Red

Carolyn Reeder. HarperCollins Publishers, $16.99 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-06-623615-5

Carolyn Reeder, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for her Civil War novel Shades of Gray, now focuses on the months between South Carolina's secession and the war's first major battle in Before the Creeks Ran Red. The story unfolds in three novellas told from the perspective of a diverse trio of boys from South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. The three don't know one another, but their separate stories make for mounting drama and help explain the reasons behind the conflict. A historical postscript answers the question ""How much of this book is true?""